Bae Suzy, Korea’s Eternal First Love

Part 1 of 6 in Korea's First Love Who Failed Her Audition: Bae Suzy

Featured photo: Suzy at an Anua photo call in Seoul, September 18, 2026. Photo: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped).

Spring 2012: Korea picked the face of first love

In the spring of 2012, South Korea settled on a single face for first love. It belonged to 17-year-old Bae Suzy, handing a boy one side of her earphones in the film Architecture 101. The movie sold 4.1 million tickets and broke the box-office record for a Korean romance (Xportsnews), and the press started calling her gungmin cheotsarang, “the Nation’s First Love” (My Daily, Apr. 12, 2012). Honestly, I was one of the moviegoers walking out of the theater that spring muttering the very same thing. Fourteen years later she has played a con artist in a thriller, led a Netflix fantasy and turned 32, and the headlines still open with the same three words. In Korea, “the Nation’s First Love” is not a nickname for Suzy. It is her other name.

1.25 million views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

The beauty that name points to is the unfussy kind: a bare face, a plain white T-shirt, nothing else needed. One Korean magazine named Suzy, Yoona and IU the troika of the 2020s, the three women who own TV, film and advertising at once, and the heirs to Kim Tae-hee, Song Hye-kyo and Jun Ji-hyun (Ize, cited by Wikipedia). Her range is the widest in this category. She has been a girl-group main vocalist, a solo singer who swept every Korean chart, an actress with both the Baeksang Arts Awards’ best new film actress prize and the Blue Dragon Series Awards’ best actress, a “CF queen” who shot 14 commercials in a single year, a variety-show rookie of the year, and the host of the Baeksang Arts Awards, Korea’s Golden Globes, eight times.

In fall 2026 she has three projects waiting: the film Seven O’Clock Breakfast Club for the Brokenhearted, opening in Korean theaters in December; the Disney+ series Portraits of Delusion; and a drama whose Korean title translates to The Men of the Harem, now shooting in Morocco. All of it started, oddly enough, with a rejection.

Also read: IU and BTS's Suga Both Sang Him. Who Was Kim Kwang-seok?

2009: Cut from the audition

Before her debut, middle-schooler Bae Su-ji modeled for online clothing stores and joined a street-dance crew to prove to her parents she was serious about becoming an idol (Wikipedia). In 2009 she entered Superstar K, Korea’s answer to American Idol. She made it through the preliminary round and was then eliminated. But a scout from JYP Entertainment had noticed her. She sang a few lines of Younha’s “Love” and became a trainee (same source). A little over a year later, she debuted.

July 2010: The youngest member, and No. 1 in three weeks

On July 1, 2010, Suzy walked onto the stage of the music show M Countdown as the youngest member of the four-piece girl group miss A, alongside Fei, Jia and Min (Xportsnews). On July 22 their debut single, “Bad Girl Good Girl,” won first place on the same show (Kuki News, July 22, 2010). It had taken three weeks. The music video has now passed 100 million views.

100.8 million views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

That October, at 16, Suzy became a regular host of MBC’s live music show Show! Music Core, sharing the stage with SHINee’s Minho and Onew and T-ara’s Jiyeon for a year (Wikipedia).

2011: Go Hye-mi in Dream High

Six months after debuting, she started acting. In January 2011 she played Go Hye-mi, a student at a performing-arts high school who dreams of being a singer, in KBS’s Dream High, opposite Kim Soo-hyun, IU and Ok Taec-yeon. She sang the show’s song “Winter Child” herself. At that year’s KBS Drama Awards she won best new actress, a popularity award and best couple with Kim Soo-hyun (Wikipedia).

2.12 million views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

917,000 views as of Oct. 25, 2026.

The applause came with something else. Her first role set off a wave of criticism about her acting. Years later Suzy remembered it this way: “I got cursed at so much back then. It was a real shock, and I was hurt a lot.” She added that she reads every hateful comment, even knowing it will hurt (KBS Happy Together 3, via OSEN, Apr. 2, 2015). Those were heavy words for a 16-year-old to read. She read them to the end and went back to set. Every time I read this part, I want to give 16-year-old Suzy a big hug, and thank her for not giving up.

2011: The youngest on Invincible Youth

That fall she joined KBS’s Invincible Youth 2, a variety show in which young idols farm and live in a countryside village. It was the first time viewers saw her laughing face for hours on end, and it won her the KBS Entertainment Awards’ best female newcomer in variety in 2012 (Wikipedia).

By the end of 2011, Suzy was a 17-year-old with a music-show trophy, a drama rookie award and a variety rookie award. Only film was left. In March 2012, that first-love movie opened.

Where to watch (checked Oct. 25, 2026, via JustWatch) – Dream High (2011): US — Rakuten Viki · Korea — wavve, Watcha – Architecture 101 (2012): US — Rakuten Viki · Korea — Netflix

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Bae Suzy”; List of awards and nominations received by Bae Suzy
• My Daily, Apr. 12, 2012; Xportsnews, Architecture 101 box office
• Kuki News, July 22, 2010; Xportsnews, miss A debut
• OSEN, Apr. 2, 2015
• Insight, Sept. 8, 2026; bnt News, Oct. 20, 2026